A Few Dehaka Talent Adjustments

I think some of his weaker talents could use some touch-ups, particularly his late game talents. Here are my suggestions:

  • Level 4

Lurker Strain [E]:
Additonal Functionality: Dehaka can now move while burrowed.

  • Level 16
  • Elongated Tongue [Q]:
    • Added Functionality: Gain 20 essence when dragging an enemy hero.
  • Tunneling Claws [Removed]
  • New Talent: Prey and Predator [W]

    • Every time a hero is hit by Primal Swarm, gain 3% attack speed for 5 seconds, up to a maximum of 60%.
  • Pack Leader [Passive]

    • Added Functionality: Gain 40 armor for 3 seconds after emerging from Burrow.
  • Level 20
  • Contagion [R1]
    • Added Functionality: Cast Range increased by 25%.
  • Change is Survival [R2]
    • New Functionality: Adaptation will activate a second time when it expires.
  • Apex Predator [Z]
    • Added Functionality: The time it takes to emerge is reduced by 0.5 seconds.
  • Essence Claws [Passive]
    • Essence gained increased from 5 to 6.

Thoughts & Reasoning:
Lurker strain competes with Dehaka’s core sustain talents, so it needs to give really good survivability to compete with essence regeneration. Level 16 and Level 20 talents were buffed across the board since at that point Dehaka loses out on his value due to a relatively lower importance on globals and less/no bushes on the outer half of the maps. Also his level 16 really had no right to be called a level 16 talent.

Thoughts?

3 Likes

I like dehaka buffs, personally though prey and preadator is OP, 5 seconds is a long time from the last tic and with essence claws makes dehaka nearly immortal since that’s 6.5% of your max HP you’re healing per auto. Change is survival is an interesting take on it, but that’s basically 2 ancestrals back to back every 30 seconds, that doesn’t seem fair imo.

Everything else seems k.

2 Likes

Yeah I think you bring a fair point, I think the duration from prey and predator should be reduced a bit, though Primal swarm is only 7 sticks, which is 21% against one hero, so it takes some time to stack in non-optimal conditions.

But for Change is Survival, the CDR is no longer there, since it’s [New Functionality]. I think the old design was just weird as it encouraged you to use it a low health.

I am not against both E talent to be merged but wouldn’t that make him too much ungankable as soon as level 4?

2 Likes

I suppose it does yes, at the cost of having weaker regen in lane. Do you think 50% speed while burrowed would be a good compromise?

A simple +healing buff in and out of E would suffice if we keep the 4 sec cdr

Adding functionality to Lurker strain wouldn’t do anything, because it competes with his sustain talents, which you will always take. I don’t think any buffs would change that unless it makes the talent OP.

This becomes OP when combined with “Feeding Frenzy”

The armor after burrow sounds nice though.

I don’t know if being hard to gank would be such a bad thing, since he loses the lane to almost everyone.

2 Likes

getting mobile burrow at level 4 is comically OP

1 Like

I would put lurker strain to tunneling claws at 16, rather than the other way around. Then he could have another level 4 talent. Maybe instead of gaining more essence, this one makes essence more efficient? Like heals for 1.5% of max health rather than 1%?

I think that is a good idea, but I think coming online so early, it would be far to powerful.

And sadly, moving lurker strain onto the latergame movement talent currently would be kinda “meh”.

I assume you mean gain 20 essence when you hit an enemy hero with Q?

If so, sounds like a neat idea (worst case, the essence amount gets nerfed a bit).

If you mean only while dragging them, well, I’m confused as to your intentions.

:+1:

imo globals like this in general don’t need buffs.
I personally think that making it not reduce the cast time, but instead reduce the “emerge” time would be a smaller buff.

Given that it means enemies have less time to react to dehaka, without actually making his global more powerful.

:+1:

I think it would be even cooler if it gave this is an optional functionality. With a toggle on the hotbar.

Fits adaptation theme better i think :smiley:
Also the re-activation probably needs a damage key or something. So getting good value off of the initial cast when combo’d with trait makes it rewards you.

Like say Dehaka needs to take at least 75% of his maximum HP to trigger it.

seems fine.

1 Like

the knockback being able to be mobile from level 4+ is my concern, personally.

Either movement or knockback isn’t concerning, but them being together from the very early game could become concerning imo.

1 Like

How to make Lurker Strain viable:

This buff will give Dehaka a form of sustain that isn’t derived from minions or Heroes.

This talent is completely fine in my opinion. This buff combined with any of Dehaka’s lvl 4 talents will make him invincible.

I don’t feel like this talent will ever be worthy of a level 16 talent given its current functionality. Giving 20 Armor when in a bush and for 5 seconds after is underwhelming.